9 Behaviors Found In An Inspiration-Driven Culture

Leaders are tasked with inspiring others. It’s an important quality that sets great leaders apart. But there are different ways “to inspire” someone.

Some leaders are great at inspiring others

• to do their best work. This is the value of Excellence.
• to have a positive attitude. This is the value of Optimism.
• to improve their personal abilities. This is the value of Personal Development.

These are all great outcomes and values.

But when leaders inspire others to think creatively and continually generate new ideas, they are embracing the true value of Inspiration.

Inspiration is a product of creative thinking and work, and/or revolutionary ideas.

When the culture of a company is built on the value inspiration, employees thrive on creating continuous innovations. They take delight in working together to make a positive difference in the world around them.

To determine if an inspiration-driven culture exists, there are specific behaviors that can be identified.

Behaviors Found in an Inspiration-Driven Culture

When an organization has created an inspiration-driven culture, employees will exhibit many (or all) of the following behaviors.

1. Ask why. A lot. Inspiration-driven individuals are inherently inquisitive. They ask ‘why’ about everything. It’s not personal. They are just continuously curious.
2. Opportunity-oriented. While issues and problems exist in every organization, inspiration-driven employees see opportunities in every challenge.
3. Encouraging. Real breakthroughs often come at a point when problems seem insurmountable. This is the exact point encouragement is most needed AND found in fellow employees.
4. Freely sharing. There’s no hoarding of information. Inspiration-driven people are always sharing from their knowledge, discoveries, and experiences.
5. Positive. Inspiration-driven individuals surround themselves with people, information, and environments that they find inspiring and motivating.
6. Vulnerable. People connect with and learn from others who openly share from their failures (and successes).
7. Storytelling. Facts tell. Stories sell. People learn best from encouraging and engaging stories. This also fosters a desire to develop their own inspiring story.
8. Pushing boundaries. Just as a good teacher challenges their students to stretch their thinking, a culture driven by inspiration encourages everyone to push the boundaries of their thinking and ideas. While this can be uncomfortable at times, it leads to better outcomes – and better people.
9. Action-oriented. Inspiration-driven people are doers and know that rhetoric alone achieves nothing. Inspiration in action is contagious and leads to more action.

If an organization claims Inspiration as a core value but does not exhibit all or most of these behaviors, then its culture is not truly driven by inspiration (at least not yet). Its leaders need to encourage and/or reward these 9 behaviors – or embrace a different value.

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What other behaviors are found in an inspiration-driven culture?